Saturday, May 24, 2014

Merv Christ, owner of The Prime Cut (Bakersfield, CA), discusses why minimum wage laws have made life more difficult for low skill workers and spelled the end for movie ushers and gas station attendants.

I've always equated minimum wage with Entry Level. Entry Level is just that -> entry level. The goal is to get the work experience and acquire skills to move up. I'm not sure why people want to work an Entry Level position and expect to get paid like someone above Entry Level.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

In this video we give a comprehensive overview of Obamacare and explain how this program which is also known as the affordable care act affects your business. Here is a table of contents where you can jump to the specific part of Obamacare that interests you:

1:09 The 4 Company Size Categories of Obamacare
1:33 What FTE's are and how to calculate them for your business
2:41 Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP Exchanges)
4:05 Obamacare Small Business Healthcare Tax Credit
5:34 The Employer Mandate
6:30 New costs for small businesses
7:07 How Obamacare differs based on the number of FTE's you employ

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Rep Alan Grayson (D-Fla) and Subway franchisee Loren Goodridge give different perspectives on whether Obamacare is good for business. Of course village idiot Grayson is so far out of touch from truth, reality, and real people that it's scary.

Saturday, May 10, 2014

In 2006, when Indiana small-business owner Scott Womack purchased a development agreement to expand his IHOP franchise into Ohio, he had no idea Congress would pass a massive overhaul of the health care system four years later.

Today, after that legislative overhaul became law, Womack is very aware of Obamacare -- and of its effects on his plans for growth.

Under the year-old law, Womack must provide health insurance to all full-time employees beginning in 2014. Right now, he employs nearly 1,000 full- and part-time workers and already offers insurance to his management staff. He simply does not know how he'll generate the revenue to do more.

Womack estimates the cost of the law to his company will be 50 percent greater than his company's earnings -- in other words, beyond his ability to pay.

That's not because his company of 12 IHOP restaurants in Indiana and Ohio is unprofitable. Quite the opposite, in fact. By industry standards, he's doing well. But labor-intensive restaurants generate profits of just 5 percent to 7 percent per employee.

With fears about how he'll afford to provide health insurance with those low profit margins, Womack is worried about his expansion plans in Ohio. He can't exactly cancel his development agreement. But he'll only be able to fund his new restaurants -- and the construction, real estate and manufacturing jobs that would go along with them -- if Obamacare is repealed.

"If the health care reform law is not repealed or if the employer mandate doesn't go away, we're going to have to take drastic action," Womack explains.

From his perspective, the law represents Congress' fundamental misunderstanding of important differences among industries. He's frustrated that so few lawmakers sought input from people like him -- but he's doing what he can to speak up now to offer a glimpse into the law's effects on small-business owners.

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Small businessmen Stephen Bienko and Steve Herman, discuss the health care law with Sean Hannity after testifying before the Small Business Subcommittee on Health and Technology

“Their economists and the people up there, you know, on the Hill that model these things, they don’t come down to where the real things happen,” Herman told Hannity.

Herman and Bienko believe that Obamacare’s regulations and requirements will hurt their businesses, but more importantly, the employees who work there. That will have a trickle-down effect on the community.

When asked how he’d grapple with Obamacare, Herman said Paul’s Supermarkets would soldier on, even if it meant cuting back on other expenses, such as donations to local charities. “We’re a family business, so we’re going to take care of people that have been with us and worked hard for us,” he said.